In the two decades since the early 1990s, when
india confirmed its allegiance to the free market, more of its citizens
have become marginalized than ever before and society has become more
sharply riven than ever. In looking away, harsh mander ranges wide to
record and analyse the many different fault lines which crisscross
indian society today. There is increasing prosperity among the middle
classes but also a corresponding intolerance for the less fortunate.
Poverty and homelessness are also on the rise -both in urban and rural
settings - but not only has the state abandoned its responsibility to
provide for those afflicted, the middle class, too, now avoids even the
basic impulses of sharing. And with the sharp rightward turn in
politics, minority communities are under serious threat -their very
status as citizens in question -as a belligerent, monolithic idea of the
nation takes the place of an inclusive, tolerant one. However, as harsh
mander points out, what most stains society today is the erosion in the
imperative for sympathy, both at the state and individual levels, a
crumbling that is principally at the base of the vast inequities which
afflict india. Exhaustive in its scope, impassioned in its arguments and
rigorous in its scholarship, looking away is a sobering checklist of
all the things we must collectively get right if india is to become the
country that was promised, in equal measure, to all its citizens.
